Git for the SalesLogix Developer – Installing Git

In this second post in the “Git for the SalesLogix Developer” series, we will be taking a look at how to install and configure Git. This tutorial will give you everything you need to know if you are new to Git so you can get it all set up and ready to use. In a later post we’ll look at how to use Git, but it all starts with knowing how to get started. If you haven’t yet read my first introduction post in the series, go read it first.

There are other tools out there, but in an attempt to choose the path of least resistance for a typical SalesLogix developer, these are the tools I have chosen to use for this series (and these are the tools we use for our daily Git/development workflow at Customer FX).

Video of the Installation Process

Some times it is just easier to watch someone else do something. I have put together a video that will walk you through the entire installation process from start to finish. Take a look (note, I recorded this during a thunderstorm so there are some occasional clicks/pops in the audio I wasn’t able to edit out):

Installation Steps

To set up Git on a workstation you will perform the following steps. If you’d like, you can jump below to watch a video of the entire installation process.

For option titled “Choosing SSH executable”, choose to use “(Tortoise)Plink” or “PuTTY”

Leave all other options as defaults

If Visual Studio is installed, choose option to install Visual Studio plugin for appropriate version of Visual Studio

For option titled “Select SSH client” choose PuTTY (plink.exe)

If you already have an SSH key pair for your account, skip to step 5, otherwise continue with step 3 to create a new SSH key pair.

Open “Git GUI” from the “Git” program group

Go to “Help”, then select “Show SSH Key”

Click “Generate Key”

Copy text (this is your public key)

Go to your account on Github.com, click the Account link and go to the section titled “SSH Public Keys” and click “Add another public key”

Paste in the public key and give it a name

Open Git Extensions

Open the Settings dialog, go to the Global Settings tab and enter your name & e-mail for “User name” and “User e-mail” (these are used for commits you make so others on the project know who made the change). Close the settings dialog.

Go to the “Remotes” menu, then “PuTTY” then select “Generate or import key”

When the install wizard appears, you can configure a proxy if you need to (the installer checks for newer versions of Git Extensions for SalesLogix whenever you close the Application Architect and will use the proxy info to check for the update)

If you’d like you can disable automatic updates

Click “Install”

Next time we will start looking at how to actually use Git when developing in SalesLogix. For now, take some time to install and configure Git on your own machine so you’ll be ready.

Ryan Farley is the Director of Development for Customer FX and creator of slxdeveloper.com. He's been blogging regularly about SalesLogix, now Infor CRM, since 2001 and believes in sharing with the community. He loves C#, Javascript, web development, open source, and Linux. He also loves his hobby as an amateur filmmaker.